Long Illuminates Poems

Dandelions…
They flutter, now I see
Fiery lions…
They're dancing with me
Sunlight…
Come out and shine down 
Moonlight…
Shun out my darkened frown

I am the infinitesimal stars in the tranquil, terrestrial night
I am the scars minutes before the sunlit dawn...

Read More

“I am NOT like my father!!!
You say that again, I’m going to kill you!”

I shrivel up in shame
For, I am not to blame
For the shenanigans you put me through so many times
Sometimes, I wish I...

Read More

Various Heresies 3

Breakings
by Michael R. Burch

I did it out of pity.
I did it out of love.
I did it not to break the heart of a tender, wounded dove.

But gods without compassion
ordained: Frail things must break!
Now...

Read More

Poems about Adam, Eve, Lucifer

Eden
by Michael R. Burch

Then earth was heaven too, a perfect garden.
Apples burgeoned and shone, unplucked on sagging boughs.
What, then, would the children eat?
Fruit indecently sweet,
redolent as incense, with a tempting aroma...



Outcasts
by...

Read More

These are prophetic poems and apocalyptic poems ...






Beast 666
by Michael R. Burch

“... what rough beast ... slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?”?W. B. Yeats

Brutality is a cross
wooden, blood-stained,
gas hissing, sibilant,
lungs gilled, deveined,
red flecks on a...

Read More

Come Down
by Michael R. Burch

for Harold Bloom

Come down, O, come down
from your high mountain tower.
How coldly the wind blows,
how late this chill hour ...

and I cannot wait
for a meteor shower
to show you the time
must be...

Read More

What Good Are Our Tears?
by Michael R. Burch

What good are our tears?
They will not spare the dying their anguish.
What good is our concern
to a child sick of living, waiting to perish?

What good, the warm benevolence...

Read More

Yosa Buson haiku translations

On the temple’s great bronze gong
a butterfly
snoozes.
?Yosa Buson, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Hard to describe:
this light sensation of being pinched
by a butterfly!
?Yosa Buson, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Not to worry...

Read More

Starlight and Moonlight II

These are poems about starlight and moonlight, moons and stars, dreams and visions, illuminations and intimations …




Deliver Us...
by Michael R. Burch 

for my mother, Christine Ena Burch

The night is dark and scary—
under...

Read More

A born lioness my untamed heart? ha! 
a mouse, this pulsing token ruled by unruly wants
at times given, traded or stolen - sometimes
thrown down on a dare to be won or lost 
till it became...

Read More

In the silky night, dotted with mystery,
Where the moon's thread weaves shadows on the paths,
The heart, a thin garment, a flash in the ether,
Listens as the time from the hourglass seeps away,
And its rhythm, a...

Read More

(A call for the lights to dim as a single spotlight illuminates the legend Judy Garland, who is center stage. She wears a faded housecoat as her beautiful, brandy brown eyes hold a lifetime of...

Read More

In the realm of moons and breathless tides,
where promises dance with a serendipitous sonnet of sunrises,
along with morning kisses, unfolds a love story—
a poetic novel etched in the chronicles
within the hourglass of time,
a journey that...

Read More

***Part 1 of the series, Not Focused (written entirely by J.W. Earnings)***

Resurrect my hushed, pleading voice from the dead
Give me Your water and nourish me with serenity 
Renew my rejoicing spirits, wholesome like bread 
Wandering...

Read More

In the mirror, I see my face melt away in shame
And, yet I still hunt for game…feeling this shame without a well-thought-out 
name

I hunt you down to catch some inspiration
I’m not looking for fame…I want...

Read More

My name, David, means beloved in Hebrew - the daytime is shining amongst my windowpane as I write this poem, not in vain, but with pain that soon goes down the drain...my mind is on...

Read More

In the mirror, I see my face melt away in shame
And, yet I still hunt for game…feeling this shame without a well-thought-out name
I hunt you down to catch some inspiration
I’m not looking for fame…I want...

Read More

Over yonder pastoral realms, with heaving mounds of green
Birds of variegated colors shine, where.streamlets gleam with opal sheen.
In circles round, fleetfooted Zephyr sweeps the laurelled ground
With footfalls that loom, a sweet scented voluptuous sound
Which gently strike...

Read More

Destruction, As Kali Walks Upon Earthen Grounds


Goddess of Destruction that teams with the Lord of Lusts 
As wrathful winds bequeath savage ravaging gusts
Hades match,  that has destroyed many a soul
World and darkness combine to...

Read More

Good Morning!

When the day sweeps 
Away the last drop of darkness, ?
(Aurora with her cool breath, ?
Gently rising to her duties, ?
And with the sun as her companion, ?
Drizzling light into dark corners), ?
It reminds...

Read More

He finds me quietly inviting the light
To fall over my dreams, my prayers, the silence
Surrounding me with blankets of memories,
Lifting my thoughts from their wistful reveries,
Delicious darkness, so delicate, tempting me to see
Life is sometimes...

Read More

Sometimes, perhaps often when we are young,
we fall in love without knowing or having experienced real love...
that's how we learn... painful at times... happy for a while... but as we grow, we learn.
And when it...

Read More

(Lights dim, single spotlight illuminates the speaker, dressed in simple attire. Voice starts trembling, building in intensity)

Can forgiveness mend
a childhood, mine 
fractured in the dark? 
Where the scars are a map, inked 
not just in...

Read More

Inner Strength 

I gave up on me and never gave up on you. In the dimmest light, chance illuminates the real desire to fight. I could never feel justified or right, to take a stance...

Read More

Love is a catastrophe, a bittersweet madness, a wild affliction that invades your soul,
Disturbs your peace, devastates your routine, transforming you into a shadow of what you once were,
Each moment under its spell an odyssey...

Read More